1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive air conditioner, more particularly, to an arrangement for the automotive air conditioner unit having heat exchangers which is disposed in approximately horizontal direction and introduces the air generated by a blower from lower sides of the heat exchangers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a conventional automotive air conditioner adopts so called "lateral layout". This lateral layout is, as shown in FIG. 17, that a fan unit 1, a cooler unit 2a and a heater unit 2b are arranged in line in the lateral (width) direction of the vehicle.
FIG. 18 shows the manner in which the lateral layout air conditioner is mounted within the vehicle. The vehicle has an instrumental panel or dashboard P. The fan unit 1, the cooler unit 2a and the heater unit 2b collectively occupy a almost half space (which is formed in front of a passenger seat) in the dashboard P along the width direction of the vehicle.
Recently, a vehicle is provided with a great number of electronic components such as computers, a compact disk player, a passenger air bag and other automotive accessaries. This results in a decrease in the space within the dashboard P and thus, makes it difficult to mount such a lateral layout air conditioner within the dashboard.
As shown in FIG. 19, there is shown another type of conventional air conditioner 2 arranged centrally within a vehicle and including, as a unit, a cooler or evaporator 21 and a heater core 22. The evaporator 21 and the heater core 22 are arranged one after the other in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. A fan unit 1 is offset laterally from the central portion of the vehicle.
This type of arrangement is so called center layout. The center layout provides a sufficient space within the dashboard to mount the evaporator 21 and the heater core 22 since these components are both located at the center of the vehicle. However, since these heat exchangers (evaporator 21 and heater core 22) are vertically arranged one above the other in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, it is necessary to provide an air duct in front of the evaporator 21 so as to receive an air from the fan unit 1. By the same way, it is necessary to provide another air duct behind the heater core 22 to allow an air flow from the heater core 22.
Consequently, those air ducts results in an increase in the overall length of the air conditioner.
This increase makes it difficult to mount a blow mode selector behind the heater core 22. To this end, the blow mode selector may be arranged above the heater core 22. However, this arrangement brings about an increase in the height of the air conditioner.
Thus, such a center layout air conditioner is also difficult to mount with a lot of electric components in the dashboard.